Now, the Metro Louisville health department is offering a guide to better health for the state's largest city that carries implications for Kentucky as a whole.

Healthy Louisville 2020, released Wednesday by the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health & Wellness, offers specific solutions, especially when it comes to smoking-a state scourge-that members of the General Assembly would do well to heed. As outlined in Wednesday's Courier-Journal, the plan recommends:

? Raising the state's shamefully low cigarette tax from 60 cents to $1 a pack. Gov. Steve Beshear, who shares the goal of cutting Kentucky's smoking rate, now the highest in the nation, proposes doing just that in his budget plan for 2014-2016. Lawmakers should embrace that measure proven to cut smoking rates, especially among youths.

? Banning the sale of e-cigarettes to minors as well as access to the increasingly popular hookah bar products. Both are simply alternate means of delivering a highly addictive drug, nicotine, and if youths under 18 can't buy cigarettes in Kentucky they certainly should be restricted from electronic cigarettes and hookah products.

A legislative committee Wednesday approved House Bill 309 to regulate e-cigarettes as tobacco products in Kentucky and ban the sale to minors. But just in case the legislature fails to pass the bill sponsored by Rep. Joni Jenkins, a Shively Democrat, the Louisville Metro Council should act to restrict the sale of e-cigarettes and hookah products to minors.

? Expanding Louisville's smoking ordinance to include outdoor areas such as parks, playgrounds and other public areas. Kentucky lawmakers are mulling a statewide ban on smoking indoors in public places such as restaurants, bars and offices-and it's not too late to pass either House Bill 173 or Senate Bill 117 to create a smoke-free law statewide.

The report endorsed by Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer identifies a number of other common sense goals to close the gap between what people know they should do versus what they actually do when it comes to health, diet and exercise.

It recommends regular health care, a goal more possible as uninsured people gain health coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

It recommends implementing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's proposed restriction of artificial trans fat in fried food and some commercial baked goods as well as adopting the National Salt Reduction Initiative, a voluntary plan meant to help people cut down on salt.

And it recommends promoting walking and biking to encourage more exercise.

It is a detailed and thoughtful document that could well put Louisville on the way to its mission, "Creating a healthier city."

As Louisville officials work to achieve the goals of Healthy Louisville 2020, state lawmakers should consider what they could do to achieve similar results throughout Kentucky.

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Editorial | A healthier city

The poor health of Louisville as a city and Kentucky as a state is well-established. Smoking, death, disease and obesity all afflict residents at alarmingly high rates yet health statistics reflect